Warning President Barack Obama against more government red tape, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday unveiled a jobs package based on infrastructure spending, developing domestic energy, trade deals and a lighter regulatory footprint.

“Businesses want to expand and hire more workers, but they continue to be held back by a rising mountain of burdensome regulations,” Randy Johnson, the Chamber’s senior vice president of labor, immigration and employment benefits, said at a press conference.

Johnson said the common theme with the regulations was that they do not fuel job growth, except for lawyers and consultants.

“It indicates the arrogance of these agencies as they pump out these new initiatives,” he said.

Chamber CEO Tom Donohue called on Obama to sign an executive order directing agencies not to issue discretionary rules.

“Now is not the time for a slew of regulations,” he said.

Although the administration has begun applying more rigorous cost-benefit analysis to regulations, Johnson said that issuance of new regulations has prevented the kind of hiring needed to bring down unemployment from 9.1 percent.

To make its case, the Chamber released a 36-page summary of the administration’s regulatory initiatives.

Donohue stressed that the Chamber’s proposals would create jobs without increasing the deficit.

The Chamber views tax reform as a long-term goal, and Donohue said the government could more immediately offer a tax holiday for companies to bring their overseas profits back to the United States.

While the Chamber claimed its proposals would raise employment quickly, the group does not expect a turnaround overnight.

The Chamber suggested its proposals would create millions of jobs, noting for example that simply getting tourism back to pre-Sept. 11 levels would add 1.3 million people to payrolls.

The business group plans to send its proposals to the president and Congress in a letter next week.

U.S. Chamber Watch, an anti-Chamber of Commerce group, said that the Chamber’s proposals would do little to reduce joblessness. Spokeswoman Christy Setzer said the recommendations instead “will effectively line the pockets of their top CEOs.”

Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute, countered the Chamber’s position by saying a lack of consumer demand had caused high unemployment, and not the regulatory environment.